A combined longitudinal and cross-sectional investigation of the early period of imitation is being proposed to cover the age span from ten days to fifty-two weeks. Imitation is a principal mechanism for new learning, through which the infant and child acquire new behaviors, develop a sense of attachment to others, and begin to "identify" with significant persons in their environment. Yet, little is known of the beginnings of these achievements, the extent to which they rely on an innate predisposition, or even the possibility that they undergo nonlinear developmental trends during infancy. The objectives of the proposed research are to (1) investigate recent claims of imitative competence as early as the neonatal period, (2) chart the progression of imitative competence and motivation through the first twenty weeks postpartum, with a follow-up at fifty-two weeks, (3) relate imitative performance at ages twenty weeks and younger to child's language ability of fifty-two weeks, and (4) examine the comparative effectiveness of mother and an unfamiliar experimenter in eliciting imitation at different ages during infancy. With a firmer empirical basis for our understanding of the very earliest period of imitation, it will become feasible to conduct further research that bears on the significance of early imitation for comprehending normal and abnormal developments in personal, social, and intellectual growth.